Our local library has a great, new feature – a live honeybee hive inside the kids area! The hive is enclosed in glass so kids can view what goes on inside. There is a pipe leading from the hive to the outside. The honeybees are free to come and go.
My kids are bee fanatics, so they are thrilled by having a bee hive right in their section of the library. The kids aren’t afraid of bees at all. (If you follow The Homeschool Scientist’s facebook page, you might remember the cryogenic bee experiment from a couple weeks ago.) In fact, they will go as far as to pet them. Yep. They pet the bees. They say they are fuzzy. I’ll take their word for it.
Honeybee Unit Study Ideas and Links
Even though my kids are bee-crazy, they don’t know a lot about them, so we’ve been reading some books from the library about bees and looking up some information online. They are fascinating creatures. A honeybee unit study would be a fun project for all ages. You could…
- build a huge beehive out of plastic milk jugs
- visit a local beekeeper
- study honey
- eat honey
- put double-sided tape on a glove and then dip your hands in feathers or cotton balls to show how pollen sticks to bees legs
- make a chart about the honey making process
- visit a flower garden and observe bees in action
Here are some FREE online resources you might consider.
Honeybee Creature Feature from National Geographic for kids
Honeybee Teaching Guide from the National Honey Board (great download with lots of information and activities)
Honeybee rhymes, worksheets and crafts for younger scientists from DLTK-Teach.com
Bee Lapbook resources and ideas
Honeybee Lesson Plan from Scholastic.com
Honey.com has lots of honey industry information from the National Honey Board
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I love the idea of double sided tape to show how sticky they are! What a great idea.
Thanks for linking up with Science Sunday!